Many Eating Well dishes offer small portion sizes, and this meal is no exception. If you’re ravenously hungry, there’s not going to be enough food to fill you up. It doesn’t help that more than half of the plate is filled with broccoli rather than pasta.

The mac and cheese isn’t amazing, but it’s not bad either. We like the whole grain cavatappi pasta; it cooks well and has an interesting flavor to it. The cheese sauce is a little thin and a little bland. We definitely prefer a creamier, richer cheese sauce. It’s a step above boxed mac and cheese, but it can’t compare to homemade dishes or better frozen offerings.

The broccoli, however, is a much bigger problem. This doesn’t taste like fresh broccoli at all. You can tell it’s frozen, and the extra cheese sauce doesn’t do much to enhance the taste. The broccoli absolutely dominates this dish, and it definitely detracts from it.

We probably won’t be having the Eating Well Vermont Cheddar Mac & Cheese again. There are so many varieties of frozen mac and cheese out there, and most of them are better than this. We have a weakness for macaroni, but we’re not willing to settle for so-so dishes.

For more information about this dish’s ingredients and nutritional content, check out our scans below.